By implementing this ban some dog owners are going to be forced to give up their dog or leave base housing.  Now, the Marine Corps Recruit Depot at Parris Island has agreed to try something new, they’re allowing animal behavior experts from the ASPCA to give temperament tests. The ban started in 2008 after several dog attacks happened on the base, one killing a 3-year-old boy.

Over 100 dogs will be tested and those who pass will get a waiver to stay on base until 2012. Here are the details from the ASPCA press release.

The assessment is a seven-item research-based assessment to help identify the likelihood for aggression in individual dogs.

“Our main goal in this program is to make sure safe dogs and their families are able to stay together,” said Dr. Emily Weiss, Senior Director of Shelter Research and Development for the ASPCA.

The ASPCA is very happy about this because they are against banning a particular breed. I totally agree with this,  we shouldn’t be punishing responsible dog owners based on the breed they chose.

* Fly studing for her test, although in her case I think it’s an agility exam.

Her mom Gail works tirelessly to help dogs find their furever homes by fostering and assisting with re-homing. She is also very active in BSL.

Sadly, on August 28th Daisy was diagnosed with cancer. Here’s what happened….

I was diagnosed with OSTEOSARCOMA. So we were going to amputate my leg but there is to many cons vs pros. To put me through so much for very little hope mom and dad didn’t want to do it. So sadly and with broken hearts mom and dad will love me for as long as I am here.. even more if possible. Since I was diagnosed I have been hardly getting around without pain. Mom and dad are doing everything they can. I will get my leg brace tomorrow to make my ” better” leg more stable to help me get around. I don’t know how long I have but I will look forward to everyday. That’s the best I can do for my mom and dad who love me so much.

Since then we have a new foster … I should say HAD a new foster. She is now my sis. Her name was Daisy also but mom changed it to Miss D ( we call her D). I love having a new sis and so does my brother. I hope you all welcome my new sis to my family. She will help mom and dad and Bullet when the time comes I am not here.

We are so sorry to hear about Daisy’s diagnosis.  Please stop by her page and send her some love and well-wishes, it would mean a lot to the family.

On the brighter side, we would like to welcome Daisy’s new sis D to her furever home and the Dogster family. You can welcome D by stopping by her homepage.

Here’s a cute story of a dog who has taken some piglets under her paw.

Pigs are usually a dog’s prey – but not always. We found one example right here in Southwest Florida where a dog is serving as a lifeline to a litter of piglets struggling to survive after nearly drowning.

But for the litter of day-old piglets, they aren’t going to their birth mother for milk. Instead, a rottweiler-pit bull mix who just gave birth to eight puppies is naturally nursing the little squealers too.

“It’s amazing, it’s awesome. It’s good to see though. It’s good to see good things in life and this is one of them,” said Angel Roman, a friend of the farm’s owner Jim Favreau.

Farm owner Jim Favreau said he rescued the newborn pigs during Monday’s downpour.

Favreau brought the piglets inside to dry off. That’s when he said his dog Tequilla’s motherly instinct kicked in.

“With the noises they were making and everything, she just knew that they needed feed, so she fed them,” Favreau said.

“The dog would normally eat pigs. They would go out and hunt them. That’s something that they will do, but here this one is just nursing them along with her puppies so it’s like a rescue,” Angel Roman said.

Favreau said Tequilla will nurse the piglets for about a week. Then he’ll start giving them pig feed.

If the picture above hasn’t provided you with enough cuteness go to NBC News 2 Online where you can view more photos of Tequilla and her piglets.

* Photo courtesy NBC2.com

I want to thank Dogster member Aggie for barking this to me. Keith Wendell opened a  a rottweiler rescue back in 1998 but in 2000 he opened it to all breeds and it became B.U.D.D.I.E.S. Rescue.

Keith has helped rehome many dogs but due to economic times has had to stop taking in dogs, right now he is just trying to save the dogs he has.

A man who rescues dogs has taken in so many that he can no longer afford to care for all of them.

Bay News 9 previous followed the story of Keith Wendell, who owns Buddies Rescue and saves older, sometimes abused or abandoned dogs. Wendell has received so many dogs that his organization is in danger of foreclosure.

Wendell recently made the decision to stop taking in dogs. He has about 50 dogs and wants to adopt out some of them.

“My fiance and myself kind of mutually decided a week ago to call off my engagement and I gave the abandoned ship order so I could stay here with the dogs and they could end up in a better situation that’s more fair to them,”
Wendell said.

Wendell says he only has a four day supply of food for the dogs and $20 to his name.

“If I can’t raise $4,000 by July 7, I’m going to have to find a veterinarian that would volunteer to come out here and euthanize all 49 dogs,” Wendell said.

He says without the money, the dogs will not survive.

After all Wendell has done to help save these dogs what a terrible tragedy it would be if he had to have them euthanized. If you are interested in adopting one of the dogs, or can help with a donation to keep the rescue going until they can be adopted, please visit B.U.D.D.I.E.S. website for all the contact information.  No amount is too small, this is a dire situation.

There is a very handsome guy, Maverick, who is in desperate need of a forever family. His owners moved from their home and left him there, alone.  A wonderful woman named Sherrill came to his rescue so he didn’t starve to death.

She paid to get him wormed, treated for fleas/ticks, microchipped, vaccinated, neutered, and treated for a tick-borne disease. She has 5 large rescues in a tiny house, and is over her limit already, so she cannot take him in.

Sherrill has sold off everything she could to pay to have him boarded since she can’t take him in. She has no more money which means Maverick has no more time.

Friends,

I’ve sold everything I can sell to keep paying for boarding for Maverick, and I’ve pleaded for help with him a few weeks ago on ar-news, with no response whatsoever. Not one.

If you are responsible, humane, and would like a perfect gentleman to be your companion animal, please email me directly, and I can arrange to have him driven to you in any state.

Every vet tech, veterinarian, and person who has been around Maverick describes him the same: A lovable, very well-behaved gentleman who is desperate to be part of a family again. He’s quiet, very alert, intelligent, brave, and incredibly easy-going.

Sadly, people in this area don’t want a Rottweiler. The majority want cutesy, tiny dogs.

I am out of options for him, now. This is my last time to ask for help for this poor guy, and then I will have absolutely no place to put him, and no way to raise any more money to pay for boarding for him.

There has got to be someone out there who would be happy to have such a beautiful teddy-bear-of-a-dog.

Maverick is located near Tulsa, OK. His personality is easy-going, laid back. Everyone at the vet clinic says he’s very well-behaved, like a gentleman. He likes to socialize with other dogs, is more of a leader personality. He will chase cats, if they run; if they stand up to him, he looks shocked and backs off. He loves being close to humans. He’s a quiet dog, only barking if there appears to be danger. His family moved away overnight and left him to fend for himself. He seemed very depressed after that.

For more pictures of him or more info please send me an email.

Thank you,

Sherrill

First, I want to thank Sherrill for being such a caring, compassionate dog lover and for all she’s done. If anyone is interested in this beautiful boy please contact her at the above email immediately.

An unwanted Rottweiler who had been living outside tied to a tree was rescued by a Livonia, MI man. Boomer came to live with his new owner about a week before Christmas, he ended up being the best gift John Bates ever received. He rescued Boomer, now Boomer has rescued him.

Early Tuesday morning there was a house fire where Bates, his girlfriend, and her two daughters live.

The fire started in a living room wall in the home on Rayburn between Merriman and Middlebelt. The family had had a fire in the fireplace the evening before, and the fire may have spread to the wall space through a hole in the brickwork, Donnelley said.

The 2-year-old Rottweiler, Boomer, alerted owner John Bates at about 5:15 a.m.

“He kept putting his cold nose right into my face. He was bouncing around,” Bates said, adding that that was unusual behavior for Boomer. The family’s other dog, a 1-year-old bull mastiff named Princess, was right behind Boomer.

“I thought they had to go the bathroom real bad,” Bates said.
He got out of bed, let them out the front door, turned on the light in the living room and saw 4 to 8 inches of smoke on the living room ceiling coming from around the fireplace.

He woke up his girlfriend, Lisa Bowden, and her two daughters, Monica, 11, and Julia, 18, who got safely outside the house.

Bates moved into the residence in November, at that time he checked one of the smoke detectors but found the battery wasn’t working. He didn’t bother replacing it.  The fire marshall on the scene emphasized the importance of making sure all smoke detectors are in working order.

If it wasn’t for Boomer the family would have died.  I have the feeling he will never have to worry about being unloved again.  Way to go Boomer, you are Dogster’s dog hero of the day.

* If you’re looking for a lifesaver you can adopt Buck, he’s a handsome 2-year-old rottie mix. Adoptable w/in 50 miles of Lowell, IN.

“Unconditional love is often not found in our world, but through man’s best friend it is a regular occurrence when a true friend is on both ends of the leash.”

Tony Loiacono, Creator & Executive Producer of “Faithful Friends.”

Pit Bulls are the bully target today, but it wasn’t always so.  Did you know that German Shepherds, Rottweilers, Dobermans and even the St. Bernard are considered aggressive? What happened to turn Pit Bulls into fighters, making them number one on the aggressive breed hit list?

The very qualities that make these dogs outstanding companion dogs — intelligence, loyalty, courage and trainability is how Michael Vick and 20,000-40,000 others abuse their strength and power in the multibillion-dollar dog fighting industry. “There is absolutely no true concept of sport in inflicting pain on those who only know how to love unconditionally,” said Wanda Goldberg, host of “Faithful Friends” on Animal Planet. “Be a voice for those without, abuse stops here, it stops now.”

Saturday, January 17th at 9am “Faithful Friends” on Animal Planet will be covering this topic. Host Wanda Goldberg and Dr. Marty Smith ,of Doctors Foster and Smith Pet Supplies, will expound on why it isn’t the dog’s breeding but the owner that makes the difference.

At the turn of the 20th Century, the American Pit Bull Terrier was the #1 family dog in the United States and Petey, a Pit Bull Terrier, was the de facto “babysitter” of the kids on the “Our Gang” TV show.

Today, they achieve the fourth highest passing rate of all 122 breeds tested with an 82.5% that took a temperament test vs. 77% of all breeds on average. But, it is the owners at the end of the leash that turned a lover into a fighter. In the US, dog-fighting is considered a felony in every state except Wyoming and Idaho.

Human intervention is trying to ban this breed with BSL, which is interesting because that’s exactly what turned these dogs into fighting machines.  Wouldn’t it be better to change the laws that govern dogfighting than creating new ones to eliminate a breed?

Why not focus on rehabilitation rather than extermination of Pit Bulls?  It’s truly amazing what can happen with patience and unconditional love. Out of the 53 dogs removed from Michael Vick 52 have now been adopted into loving homes.

One of them is even a therapy dog providing comfort to people going through chemotherapy. Does that sound like a vicious killer to you?

*Caesar with his true friend.

This is an amazing story of friendship and survival.  In Schaumburg, IL. two Rottweilers disappeared off the 10 acre lot where they lived.

The dogs, 10 month old Trixie and 11 month Bosco, were originally thought to have been dognapped.

They were gone for 11 days when a worker, from A Lamp Concrete Contractors Inc., heard a noise coming from the drainage system on the property.

Popping open a manhole in the driveway, they saw Trixi peering up from 10-feet below, said receptionist Theresa Polizzi.

It didn’t take long to retrieve the freezing and shaken 10-month-old “shop dog.”

Bosco was nowhere in sight, but the rescue workers knew he couldn’t be far behind, Polizzi said.

“Wherever she goes, he’s following her,” she said.

Employees called one of the company’s regular vendors to run a camera through the 18-inch pipe and spotted the 11-month-old dog about 225 feet away.

Although the dogs had both lost a staggering amount of weight, at least 15 lbs. each, they were doing surprisingly well. Both were taken to the emergency veterinary hospital for care but were released the same day.

I don’t think it’s a good idea for Bosco to play Follow the Leader with Trixie anymore.